super cooper

You just never know what you're going to get with Cooper. Sometimes he'll do anything for a laugh. The other morning Clayton came downstairs for breakfast and casually asked, "So Cooper, do you still have that popcorn kernel in your nose?" Cooper started giggling and said, yes, he did indeed still have the popcorn kernel in his nose. He'd apparently put it there the night before for the sole purpose of entertaining his brothers. I started to panic but then thought, 'Surely, he's just kidding. He couldn't have slept all night with popcorn in his nose!' I tilted his giant head back and peered into each nostril. Lo and behold, there was a kernel in there. I started to picture the trip to the doctor and the tweezers they would have to use to extract it, when suddenly I remembered reading something about that exact predicament just a few weeks earlier. With my husband's assistance, we covered his mouth, his empty nostril, and told him to blow out hard. Poof! Out it came. We discarded the offending object and ranted and raved for a while about how dangerous it could have been. To him, it was totally worth it to gain some respect from his big brothers

He's not always fun and games, though. Sometimes he takes the moral high ground. The other day when I picked him up from pre-school one of his fellow classmates waved good-bye to him but he just ignored her. I said, "Hey, she's waving to you. Why don't you wave back?" He furrowed his brow and said that she had said some very "tacky" things to him in class that day and he was mad at her. He said it was so tacky he had to cover his ears to keep from hearing it during snacktime. I had to wonder what on earth a three year-old little girl could say that was so offensive to my son's not-so-delicate sensibilities. But he would not tell me. It was just too bad. I kept prodding him and finally told me, after warning me once again how bad it was. He said that she said.....'Grandma's underpants.' I could not help myself and burst out laughing. He was not amused.

We're also surprised by him in other ways. The other night we went for a walk down the trails that wind through our neighborhood. On the way back, Cooper was tired so he rode on his Dad's shoulders. My other two boys challenged me to a race and I beat them again and again. They don't quite know how to pace themselves yet. After watching all this, Cooper asked to get down and race with us. On your marks, get set, go! We set off down the trails together. It wasn't long before the older two sprinted themselves out and had to stop and rest. But Cooper kept running. And running. I was right behind him and he was not running slowly. He was actually going about the pace I usually run at. It was so funny seeing his little arms pumping and his little feet slapping the ground. He had really good form. I said, "If you need to take a break, it's okay!" But he said no, he was fine. He wasn't even out of breath! I could not believe how far he went. We went up hills and down hills until finally, he stopped at a bench that was the designated finish line. He'd run at least a quarter of a mile easily.

"Mom, are there running shoes?" he asked, pointing to his feet.

"They are now!" I said.

Who knows what's in store for Cooper. I can't wait to see.